Madeleine McCann: The Super Bock Theory

MADELEINE McCann: the Sunday Express has Our Maddie on her usual place: the front page.

The headline is sensational. But which Maddie Suspect? Which shirt? Found by whom?

James Murray explains:

A FORMER Scotland Yard detective has uncovered a sensational clue that could help solve the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Peter Bleksley believes the shirt worn by the prime suspect was a rare design produced by beer company Super Bock.

The shirt is this one seen below, reportedly worn by the man linked to attacks on children in Portugal.

So. The man who is no longer a serving policeman – who is not working on the case in any official capacity – has found this shirt?

It was not sold but given away to loyal customers and should be possible to trace. The suspect is a child sex attacker who has been operating for years in the area of Portugal where Madeleine vanished in 2007.

His burgundy coloured top with a distinctive white ­circle on the back was described by the families of two of his victims.

We thought it looked not a lot unlike this top, as worn by Arsenal FC:

Back to Mr Bleksley, 54, “a founder member of the Yard’s undercover squad”, who tells the paper:

“Some people have suggested it bore a resemblance to a strip once worn by the Arsenal football team.”

“However, I think a more likely explanation could be that the man was wearing one of these Super Bock promotional T-shirts.”

More likely? So. He hasn’t found the top worn by the suspect, then?

This is the logo for Super Bock beer:

And this is a super Bock Tee:

What else do we know about Mt Bleksley? His twitter profile tells us:

I write, consult, and comment upon subjects that I know a lot about. Policing, crime, security. Husband. Dad to 3 great sons. Love sport, especially QPR. London

The Guardian tells us he is “a director and co-owner of a business intelligence company”.

So. He’s an independent, self-employed man on the case. All power to him. He’s doing the job of an investigative journalist. He adds:

“From speaking to bar owners I know the design for these T-shirts changes every year and only a certain number are handed out to regular customers. Therefore, it would be possible to check back on all the designs and the years they were produced and see which one bears most similarity to that witnessed by families of victims. Then it would be possible to check the distribution of the T-shirts to see where they were given out. Not all pubs bother with the promotion so through a process of elimination it may be possible to narrow down where such shirts may have been handed out and then bar owners could be asked about their customers.

“We know that some victims said the man smelt of stale alcohol and tobacco and that he had a pot belly, so that would suggest he was a regular drinker or may have worked in a pub or restaurant.”